Cope beats Ebdon at Grand Prix

Jamie Cope knocked Peter Ebdon out of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix in a match that ended in bizarre fashion.

Ebdon needed two snookers in the final frame but after getting them he was snookered himself and dropped to the ground in despair in Glasgow.

Cope managed to finally close out a 5-4 victory in a game which had already seen Ebdon react angrily after missing the final green as he went for a 147.

Ronnie O'Sullivan cruised to a 5-1 win over defending champion Marco Fu.

O'Sullivan, who had not been happy with his form in his first-round win, said after the victory: "I'm happier with that performance but surprised I won."

Fu hit a 116 to level at 1-1 but that was as good as it got as breaks of 57, 67 and 76 helped O'Sullivan to victory.

The second of Thursday's games was a scrappy affair, with Cope and Ebdon frequently undone by simple pots.

The most blatant example came in the second frame when Ebdon, on 122, missed a very pot-able green to end his bid for a maximum 147.

He swung his cue in a wide arc at head height to leave no-one in doubt about angry he was but that was not the most extreme reaction he was to produce.

In the final frame Cope looked set to wrap up victory as he cruised to a break of 68 before missing a fairly simple red, which left Ebdon needing two snookers.

He managed to lay a first snooker and when Cope missed a simple escape it was game on once more.

Cope then managed to get out of a far trickier snooker but handed the advantage to Ebdon by missing the yellow once more when snookered for a third time.

After a miss was called he finally escaped at the third time of asking and promptly fluked a snooker himself.

Ebdon reacted in total disbelief, dropping his cue and then chucking his chalk in the air before collapsing to the ground in melodramatic fashion.

He duly failed to escape and left the table open for Cope to finally wrap up a victory which should have been his 15 minutes before.

Ali Carter needed just 74 minutes to whitewash veteran Parrott 5-0, while Ryan Day clinched a battling 5-4 victory to dump out the current Masters and Welsh Open champion Mark Selby.

The Welsh professional pocketed breaks of 67, 62 and 55 to progress - and will now play Stoke's Jamie Cope in the quarter-finals, while Carter will meet Steve Davis.

"Steve Davis is unbelievable, to be playing top flight snooker at 51 is a great achievement," said Carter looking ahead to Friday's match.

"I'm 29, so it's going be another 22 years for me to catch him up. I can't see myself still playing snooker then. It's no mean feat for Steve."

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